Sailing our chartered Lagoon 45, we left the tourist islands of Phi Phi behind, and headed west toward Ko Racha Yai, a large island south of the Phuket peninsula in Thailand.
There was little wind, but we put the sails up to see if our repair had worked; it had, the sail went up without resistance, and the top stayed erect. Unfortunately the winds were really light and we were only doing 3 knots, so we fired up the engines anyway.
We had another couple of attempts at starting the broken generator, but had no real luck, it sounded like it wasn’t even getting any fuel. Still no air conditioning for us, then.
Ko Racha Yai
We dropped anchor in Raya Bay, near to a swimming net which ran the length of one side of the bay. This proved to be chock-full of many different species of fish, and we had a great time snorkelling around, dodging between rock falls and swim-throughs, and marvelling at the wildlife.
A pair of engineers arrived to fix the generator. Of course, as soon as they were aboard, it started first time. They changed a fuel filter anyway, and then sat and watched it for an hour while it chugged flawlessly. Eventually we realised that they were waiting for an opportunity to take selfies on the yacht, so we took the tender to shore and left them to it.
Raya Bay was very different from the mad excess of Phi Phi Beach. There were a handful of luxury resorts and a few nice quiet bars and restaurants, where we had lovely cocktails.
We picked up some shopping, and while the others went to check out the small restaurant that they had chosen, Ivana and I walked out on the marvellous plastic floating jetty to load the dinghy. We ferried the shopping back to the yacht without risk of grounding or losing life and limb to marauding speed boats.
On our return to the restaurant, we found that the others had been frantically ordering for us because the kitchen was closing. While ordering, they’d also realised that the restaurant did not serve alcohol. The only other guests were a Russian couple, who kindly offered David their moped to go get some drink (this island is mildly famous for not allowing any cars). David didn’t know where the wine shop was, so the guy gave him a lift to the shop – it turned out to be the same one where we’d earlier stocked up on food – and they came back with plentiful wine, just as Ivana and I arrived.
Regardless of the initial panic about ordering, we stayed for several hours and ate a great many different dishes and drank a great deal of wine.
The food was great, the staff were very helpful and we all had a great time. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a note of the name of the restaurant.
We returned to the boat, and partied a bit longer.
Ko He
When the sun came up the next morning, so did the heat and humidity. Grateful that we once again had a generator to run the air conditioning, we tried to fire it up… but of course, with no engineer on board to watch it, it wouldn’t start.
The wind was poor too, so we motor-sailed north to our next destination, Ko He, just south of the Phuket peninsula, where we picked up a handy public mooring.
We went ashore for what turned out to be a boozy lunch, surrounded by Russian holidaymakers, who universally followed the stereotype of bald men with big bellies, accompanied by scantily clad women with big boobs.
The tourists were being delivered and taken away in batches by a never-ending stream of ferries, and we amused ourselves watching groups of people navigating the floating plastic jetty. These jetties are common around here, and are brilliant, made of interconnected pieces that flex with the incoming waves. Walking on them in a swell can be a surreal experience.
Another charter cat appeared in the bay. We watched from the shore as he came up behind Eos on her mooring, and streamed a line off our aft cleat. I’ve not seen anyone do that before.
By mid afternoon, it was our turn to negotiate the floating jetty to our tender. We returned to Eos, handed the mooring rope over to the neighbouring catamaran, and headed north.
Ao Yon Beach and Ko Rang Yai
We were aiming for a south-facing bay on the mainland. On arrival the main got stuck again, so Andrew and I tightened up our repair, and eventually we got it down and dropped anchor off Ao Yon Beach, next to the pearl farm.
The charter company sent out another pair of engineers, who pronounced the generator not only dead, but also incorrectly installed and unfixable.
We went ashore and ate at a small beachfront bar. The food was lovely, and ended in amusement as the heavens opened in a thunderstorm and rain came pouring in through gaps in the walls, leaving us ankle deep in water under the table.
It was a big night, as we were also waving goodbye to Vananh and Andrew, who were heading off the following day for their honeymoon.
In the morning, after a visit to the pearl shop, we motored north to Ko Rang Yai, a ‘one bar island’ whose sole restaurant doubled as an ATV and jet-ski hire. We dropped anchor very close to shore and took the tender in for drinks. Then, as a squall came in, we returned to the yacht to close the hatches, before going back to shore to order lunch. The food came, but the wind changed and we didn’t like the way that Eos was riding her anchor, so we grabbed all the mouthfuls we could and took the dinghy back to Eos again to see if she was dragging.
Unfortunately I had inadvertently eaten some chicken breast, which rarely ends well for me. I started throwing up while driving the dinghy, then again while making it secure, then discovered that the yacht’s anchor bridle had twisted and jammed and threw up while I was hanging off the bow fixing that, until finally the anchor was aboard and we were under way and I could lie down quietly on the swim platform.
Time passed as we motored northward to the final anchorage of our circumnavigation. I recovered enough to join the crew for a mid-afternoon beer. Ivana washed her clothes in a bucket, because she had run out of clean ones, and without a generator, we could not use the washing machine.
Finally we ended up back where it had all started, at the end of the jetty for Naka Island Luxury Resort, on Ko Naka Yai.
Ko Naka Yai / GREATER Naka Island
The staff welcomed us back, and whisked us in golf carts to the Z Bar at the end of the northern peninsula for cocktails. While we were there, the staff put on a little talk and ceremony for the dragon which guards the islands, whose protective claws are the fringing mangrove roots. At sunset, we lit candles in coconut half-shells, and said a prayer before setting them afloat.
The ever-obliging staff then whisked us away to their Thai restaurant, where we had a very nice meal indeed. There were musicians and dancing girls in costumes and a traditional dance story about a man and a girl falling in love.
Happy and full, we made our way back to Eos, where we made a concerted effort to finish all the alcohol aboard, including most of a bottle of rum. We left only a single beer, and enough rakia for our breakfast shot. There was hilarity, and music, and not a little dancing.
We had come full circle, and it was time to go home. But we will be back.
Great write-up!